The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-07-02

pen. Fritz was near by every time,
and he grabbed the egg and ran off
with it as soon as ever left it. Posi-
bly, he, too, was afraid fre-crackers
would come out of the eggs before he
could get them to his hen-house with
the green blinds.
After awhile, when / found that
nothing unusual happened to my eggs,
! fe3t it was my duty to raise family
of chickens. If there is any thing
sweeter and dearer than nestful of
baby chickens, l don't know where
you will find it Other hens of my own
coop were bringing up the loveliest
families-why shouldn't 1? So one
day just said l would. The first thing
was to find place where that awful
boy couldn't get at it l found the
incest spot for a nest right under the
stable, where the straw and chaff had
sifted down through. Then l went to
work to fill it with eggs. 1 had much
trouble to keep out of the way of Fritz,
and every time he saw me and found
there was no egg in my old nest, he
said things that did not understand,
and l think it was probably more COM
Portable for me that l did not.
AT last had my nest full of most
beautiful eggs, and then determined
to stay right with them all the time
till l should hear my babies peep their
first little peep. Two or three times
the thought came to me; What if
they should really hatch out frightful
things like the one Fritz threw at me?"
But l couldn't believe it possible that
my eggs would have so little respect
for their mother as to do that.
The second day that / stayed with
my nestful of eggs, | had to leave for n
few minutes to get a drink and a bite
to eat. While was out in the yard,
who should 1 see but Fritz polling
around in a way that made me nerv-
Gus. As soon as thought he was not
looking | hurried into the hole that
led to my nest, but when | got there
what do you suppose found? Fritz
had lifted up a plank right over the
nest, and was taking out the precious
eggs.
"Ah, ha, Mistress Slyw he said.
Thought you'd cheat me out of a
dozen eggs, did you? But caught you
just in time to save them-fye times
twelve are SIXTY dozen punches of
fire-crackers in one nest! Amt YOU
just patriotic, though! I'll show you
tomorrow what Fourth of July means,
just to pay up for sneaking"
If | had not been so distressed at the
robbery of my nest, l should have
thought more of his threat, although,
of course, could only guess what he
intended to do.
The next morning l was walking
around, broken-hearted, when Fritz
and several other boys came to the
barnyard, where l was talking with
the other ladies and gentlemen of my
acquaintance.
''Theren' said Fritz" there's the old
hen that laid my Fourth of July. l got
over two dollars for her eggs. She
tried to hide away a dozen, but L found
them yesterday, and so was sixty cents
ahead. She didn't know they were
loaded with fre-crackers"
With that they all laughed.
"Now let's let her see what her eggs
Matched out for me!''
And with that Fritz and the other
boys began to throw at us those little
red worms that went Sizzle -6anq =
until l thought we would all die of
fright. | soon found a. safe place
under the shed, where I stayed till the
boys had gone. But | shall never be
thankful enough that Fritz took those
eggs from my nest before they Matched;
for if they had gone sizzLe -bang =
while [ was covering them, where
would have been now?-E. r. IrcE-
ton, IN Christian Union.